Speaking of Fuling Tea at the 2025 China Fuling Tea Buying Festival, its origins can be traced back to the Han Dynasty and it was popular during the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi recorded the prevalence of Fuling tea in “The Song of the Lute,” with the line “I went to buy tea in Fuling last month.” Fuling tea has a long history.

Fuling tea has a long history, with people growing and harvesting tea there as early as the Han Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, Tea processing and trade began to flourish. At that time, Fuling produced high-quality tea in large quantities, and with well-developed water and land transportation, it became one of China's major tea distribution centers.

According to “A Brief History of Chinese Commerce,” during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, “Fuling tea in Jiangxi is the best,” indicating that Fuling had become a primary southern tea production area.

During the Zhen Guan years (627-649) of the Tang Dynasty, Jiangxi was one of the seven major tea-producing areas in the country, with most of the output concentrated in Fuling County. One could say that Fuling was one of the largest tea distribution centers in the country at the time, with frequent business transactions and thriving commerce, also becoming an important source of national tax revenue.

In the “Yuanhe Gazetteer of Prefectures and Counties” from the reign of Emperor Xianzong of Tang, it is recorded that “every year, seven million loads of tea are produced, taxed at more than 150,000 strings of cash” (which accounted for one-third of the country). In Wang Fu's “Tea and Wine Discourse,” there is the line “Fuling and She Prefecture, sought by all nations,” vividly depicting the bustling tea trade in Fuling at the time.

In the Dunhuang Manuscripts, Wang Fu's “Tea and Wine Discourse” from the Tang Dynasty records “Fuling and She Prefecture, sought by all nations,” vividly describing the prosperity of the Fuling tea market at the time. This indicates that the sales range of Fuling tea during the Tang Dynasty covered not only the vast regions south of the Great Wall but also included significant exports.

In 816, during the eleventh year of the Yuanhe era of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi wrote in “The Song of the Lute,” “Merchants value profit over parting, last month I went to Fuling to buy tea,” immortalizing the thriving tea business in Fuling County. Throughout the Tang and Song dynasties, Fuling County was one of the few primary tea-producing areas in the country, with its share of tea trade accounting for at least one-quarter of the nation's total.

The Ming dynasty's Tang Xianzu recorded in his “New Lecture Hall in Fuling County” that “Fuling tea is renowned throughout the world; pure and fragrant, it depends on the skill of the maker.”

In the Qing Dynasty, Black Tea production techniques were introduced to Fuling, bringing about a technical revolution in tea production there.

Fuling Gongfu black tea is known for its “beautiful appearance, red color, rich taste, and lingering aftertaste,” and is exported to European and American markets.

In the late Qing and Republican eras, Fuling Gongfu black tea was hailed as “premium black tea” in international markets, especially in London, England, where it was listed among the “elite teas” and favored by the royal aristocracy, who praised Qihong (Fuling black tea) as “the finest among all.”

In 1915, Fuling Gongfu black tea won a gold medal at the first Panama World's Fair. Since then, Fuling black tea has been renowned worldwide. From then on, Fuling Gongfu black tea, along with Ceylon highland tea and Darjeeling tea from India, was listed among the “World's Three High-Aromatic Teas.”

Fuling Gongfu black tea won the “Gold Medal at the 1915 San Francisco Panama World Peace Exposition” Since the Tang Dynasty, Fuling tea has been characterized by its “beautiful shape, bright color, rich aroma, and mellow taste,” remaining popular through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, becoming a timeless brand, and designated as a “tribute product.” (Source: China Daily Web)

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